Congrats to Hector Noesi!

Being a rookie or a prospect in the Yankees system is tough. With the win-now-at-all-costs mentality, there is really no time to break in a rookie and stick with him through the lumps that nearly all first year players endure. Unless a rookie comes up and shines immediately, he has almost no chance of sticking...which kind of sucks. Since 2000, really the only rooks who came up and ran with the opportunity were Soriano, Cano, Wang and Joba - and to a lesser extent Hughes and Gardner. The Yanks now find themselves in a situation where they have a wealth of minor league pitching depth, loaded with both top prospects and guys who may make a good 4th or 5th starter in Pittsburgh, but not NY.

Hector Noesi was the second of these prospects to be called up this year. The first was Lance Pendleton, who actually pitched well in his his few appearances. Noesi was next in line to get the call-up. In his first stint in the bigs, he was with the team from April 13-22 and didn't appear in a game. This time, he was called up on May 13, and finally entered his first game last night - a tie-game in the 12th on the road against Baltimore. Normally these would never, ever be the circumstances for an ML debut, but with a taxed bullpen, Joe Giardi had no choice. Noesi came in and struck out the first two batters he faced, and then went on to pitch in and out of trouble for a total of four innings, picking up the win in his first appearance as the Yanks finally broke through in the top of the 15th with three runs.

Can't say enough about the kid. It wasn't always pretty, but he gave the team four innings they desperately needed. Unfortunately he'll probably be rewarded with a trip back to Scranton and replaced by a fresh arm, but he'll be back and hopefully will continue to contribute for the big league club.

Here is a TTM success I got from Noesi when he was first called up a few weeks ago. Congrats again, Hector. Oh, and if anyone has pulled his 2011 Bowman card of him, I'd definitely be interested in trading for it.